Brr, cool debut for AC pandal

Adityapur-based Singhbhum Boys Cricket Club has decided to go heavy on technology this Durga Puja with a 3,000 square feet air-conditioned pandal.

The concept — so far alien to the city primarily due to safety concerns — will see six 10-tonne air-conditioners cooling the structure, which is being given shape by 15 artisans Bengal’s Contai.

The organisers of the S-Type area puja, around 4km from the city, claimed that they had already applied for a No Objection Certificate from the Seraikela-Kharsawan fire service station at Adityapur and for other clearances.

Speaking to The Telegraph on Wednesday, vice president of the puja committee Bikash Singh said they wanted to do something off-beat this year, something that made them stand apart from the other pujas being organised.

“October is usually humid in this part. Hence, we decided to go ahead with the novel concept of an air-conditioned pandal,” Singh said.

He added that they would hire electricians from local firms to lay out the necessary wiring of the panels, which would include proper circuit breakers.

“We will have to cool a huge area inside the pandal and hence we will be putting in place six air conditioners. A trial run would be done 12 hours before the inauguration of the pandal to iron out any last minute glitches,” Singh said.

He added that the air-conditioners — the estimated cost of setting up which would Rs 4-5 lakh — would be switched off after dusk.

“The wiring and the duct system installation would be done by local electricians under supervision from Delhi-based experts. The idea was to give the residents some cool comfort as they paid their obeisance to the deity,” singh said.

The décor too would be eye-catching with Bengal based artisans having worked on the structure for close to a month, having put in place all natural hanging flowers and carved out decorations from mushrooms, wildflowers and cane flowers.

The Rs 17-lakh structure, once completed, will represent an ocean with three boats on three sides.

“Transparent plastic has been used to make the waves look real at night time,” Singh said.